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Sunday, September 25, 2011

Blogging From My Toshiba Thrive

Several weeks ago I bought a Toshiba Thrive Android tablet but I haven't really taken the time to figure out what it can and cannot do. Today I'm using it to write this blog post. I'm using the Blogger Android app but will try using Blogger directly from the browser later.

The main reason I chose the Thrive was the built-in SD card slot. The USB port is an added benefit that I think will prove useful. When I started seriously looking at tablets, I was surprised to find that those are not features found on most devices. One of the reasons I wanted a tablet was to review and backup photos on trips when I couldn't easily take a laptop - like the upcoming cruise when I'll be flying and space is limited. (Shoes are still more important than electronics.) That meant an SD slot or some way to transfer photos from the camera was a must and that pretty much ruled out most tablets on the market today.

I looked at the iPad because there is a SD card adaptor but it gets really mixed reviews. I finally decided that I didn't care if the Thrive was a little chubbier than other tablets if it could do what I wanted.

With the USB port, I can move pictures from the SD card directly to a Flash Drive and still see the pictures without taking up a chunk of hard drive space. I can also carry info on a Flash Drive that I might need to access without having it actually loaded to the tablet. (That's not much of an issue for me since all my genea-stuff is in Dropbox and I can get to it from the tablet.)

I should note that I don't think the screen resolution is as sharp as some tablets, especially the iPad, but I made the trade off for the other features. You can't have everything - at least not yet.

Things I've learned while writing this post (remember I'm using the Blogger app so these are really limitations of the app rather than the Thrive):
1. There is no preview function to review a post before publishing it.
2. There is no HTML tab.
3. Posts that I had previously scheduled are listed as "published" in the post list. (Scared me for a minute.)
4. There aren't many formatting options - can't change font but can bold and italize and add links.
5. The photo that (I hope) is in this post was loaded from the SD card. I can't seem to place a photo where I want with in a post but it's showing as a thumbnail at the end of the text during edit so I guess it will appear somewhere. Since I can't preview, I'll have to wait until it's published to see where it is.
6. There is no way to schedule a post but it can be saved in draft.

If the picture is included, you can see the SD card slot on the lower right (which is actually the upper right when using the tablet). That hot pink back cover was purchased separately (cause I liked it much better than the black cover that is standard). This doesn't even scratch the surface regarding using the Thrive but it's a start. I'm going to it publish now and see want happens.

I have not really blogged from my Iconia tablet yet, but, I do use it all the time to go to my blogs, I have edited a blog or two, and I have previewed, approved or not, comments, and have changed the posting time on a blog that was prescheduled. I do so with the browser, not with any app.